Thursday, April 2, 2015

The Bristol Suffragettes

To celebrate the release of the SilverWood Selection Box,
Lucienne Boyce answers some “frequently asked questions” about how she came to
write The
Bristol Suffragettes...

SilverWood
Books have put together a selection of tasters from books by ten of their
authors. The SilverWood Selection Box, which is available as a free ebook, contains
an amazing pick of genres, with extracts from historical and fantasy novelist
Helen Hollick's advice for authors, Dave Ebsworth's Spanish Civil War novel,
poems by Michael Brown, Roman-nut Alison Morton's alternative fiction, time
slip by Anna Belfrage, Iceland-obsessed Edward Hancox, Adrian Churchward's
political thriller, serving police offer Sandy Osborne's romantic comedy about
a girl cop, and Harvey Black's Cold War series. And, of course, I’m delighted
to say, The Bristol Suffragettes, which is a history of the suffragette
campaign in Bristol and the West Country.

At the end of this blog, you will find links to the other authors' blogs/websites.

What sparked your interest in the local
suffragette movement?

Until
a few years ago, I had no idea the suffragettes were so active in Bristol. Then
one day I was browsing at a market stall in Bristol’s Corn Exchange where they
sold old photographs and postcards. I came across a picture taken in 1913 of a
group of women standing under the banner: “Women’s Suffrage Societies: Land’s
End to London”. The women were wearing badges in their hats, and rosettes and
sashes, and carrying decorated shoulder bags. Of course, the picture was in
black and white and I didn’t know what the colours were, but I was intrigued.
Who were these women, were why they dressed in uniform, and what were they
doing?

And they were suffragettes?

No!
As a matter of fact it turned out that the women I was looking at were not
suffragettes: they were a west-country contingent of law-abiding suffragists
and they were taking part in the Suffrage Pilgrimage of summer 1913. They are
wearing the colours – red, white and green – of the non-militant National Union
of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) who organised the Pilgrimage. Travelling from
all corners of the United Kingdom, hundreds of women walked to London, giving
talks and holding meetings in towns and villages on the way, to meet in a mass
rally in London’s Hyde Park on 26 July 1913. The west country route started at
Land’s End.

During
their pilgrimage, the NUWSS women faced violence and hostility. In Cheltenham
they were pelted with eggs and mobbed. In Cirencester, students dressed up as
women and drowned out the speeches with their heckling, while many of the
suffragists were attacked and had their clothes torn. In Portsmouth, pilgrims
were subjected to obscene insults. The opponents of women’s suffrage didn’t
always distinguish between militant and non-militant campaigners!

But
I soon realised that it was an important distinction. The women in the
photographs were not suffragettes. They didn’t break the law and they didn’t go
to prison for the cause. And at first I didn’t think much of it. Like many
people, I’d thought of the suffragette campaign as being something that
happened in London: the battles around the House of Commons, demonstrations in
the Ladies’ Gallery, the Hyde Park rallies, hunger strikes in Holloway. But
while I was trying to find out about the picture, I began to come across incidents
in Bristol: windows broken, buildings burned, politicians attacked – and women
in Horfield Prison on hunger strike and being forcibly fed. The more I looked
into Bristol’s suffrage history, the more names and events I discovered – not
the big names, and not the headlining events (although some did hit the
headlines!). And it was those less well known women I wanted to commemorate.

You’ve included a fold-out map and walk
in the book. Why did you think that was important?

The
more I discovered about what happened in and around Bristol, the more intrigued
I became. I’d be walking past the Colston Hall and I’d think, oh, suffragettes
hid in the organ here. Or along Small Street, and I’d recall that here
suffragettes broke the Post Office windows. The thought that I was walking in
the suffragettes’ footsteps fascinated me. So the walk is an invitation to
readers to join me in that walk. There are also some free, downloadable walk
“add ons” on my website that you can do as additions to the walk in the book,
or as stand-alone strolls. And I often do guided walks so you can literally join
me if you wish! – the next one is for the Bristol Walking Festival on 10 May. (Details in my Diary.)

The
walk add-ons are part of what I call my Bristol Suffragette Project. I’m
constantly adding to the website – there are extracts from some of my talks,
and the Spotlight On feature which commemorates women – and men – who were active
in Bristol and beyond: Lillian Lenton, Edith New, Ellen Pitman and many others.
And if you have a suffrage story to share – with or without a Bristol connection
– I’m always delighted to hear from you.

Where can I obtain a copy of the
SilverWood Selection Box, and find out more about the other authors?

4 comments:

Good morning, Lucienne. Love the post - and still regularly dipping into "The Bristol Suffragettes" too. Wonderful book. I'm still moving towards writing my seminal novel about LIverpool next year - set between 1911 and 1919, and dealing with the various "revolutions" that ran through the city in that period. Big focus on the highly complex relationships between the various suffrage groups there, naturally, so shall be coming to you for advice!

Phew been a busy day... enjoying reading the posts while sipping a cup of tea and nibbling a hot cross bun! I'm also busy with my A-Z April Blog Challenge... while puppy-sitting the new family member.... it's all go! :-) http://leaningonthegate.blogspot.co.uk/

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About Me

I live in Bristol and I write historical fiction and non-fiction. In 2006 I completed an MA in English Literature with the Open University, specialising in eighteenth century literature.
My historical novels are set in the eighteenth century. To date they are: To The Fair Land (2012); and the Dan Foster Mystery Series comprising Bloodie Bones (2015), The Fatal Coin (2017) and The Butcher’s Block (2017). Bloodie Bones was a winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016 and a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Historical Fiction Award 2016.
The Bristol Suffragettes (non-fiction), a history of the suffragette campaign in Bristol and the south west which includes a fold-out map and walk, was published in 2013.